Occupation 17
by kouchpotato
Summary: A small cell of Resistance Soldiers are given a vital mission. Rated T for some language and violence.


The sounds of a plasma rifle on fully automatic rifle firing echoed ominously through the dingy street.

Nikolai let out a pent up breath, his hand clenching and unclenching on the grip of the affectionately named "Smeg", a general purpose submachine gun used extensively by the Combine forces. The distant gunshots barely registered in his fear filled mind, as he silently waited for the order. _It's too late to go back_.

'Fear is the mind killer… fear is the little death. I will face my fear, and let it wash over me,' he breathed for the hundredth time. He was still scared. So scared. Scared at what he was going to do. Scared of what he was going to face.

The eerie wail of a strider sounded in the distance, to the small resistance cell's rear. Nikolai whimpered softy, praying to a God he wasn't sure if he believed in. The other members of the resistance group prepared themselves in whatever way they could for the coming storm.

Wilhelm, the de facto leader of the small squad, cleared his throat meaningfully. 'Okay, friends. Let's prepare to do this…' he trailed off, suddenly interested in the slide of his rifle. Nikolai cringed at a nearby detonation. This was idiotic, this was insane. Twelve men and women, storming a building brimming with blue suits, and to top it off, the central launch pad for Head Crab shells?

"Freeman will help us. Freeman will save us!" Odessa, that fat loaf had kept repeating Freeman's name like a lucky charm. _Fuck Freeman. I don't see him here helping us_. The legend amongst the Resistance had thrown his life away at Nova Prospekt. Apparently he had destroyed it. Nikolai doubted it, it was probably just propaganda to raise the troop's morale before they were wiped out in a suicide mission.

There was a small beep. Nikolai's blood turned to ice and Wilhelm muttered something into the radio he carried. There was a moment of silence.

'Well… we're to launch the attack when we hear the next big explosion. Apparently… Freeman is engaged at the Nexus. They've made major headway… but unless we can knock out these crab catapults it'll all be in vain.' Wilhelm kept his eyes on the ground, trying to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

'There is some good news… a few civilians managed to get their hands on some weapons. They'll be covering us from the north.' Nikolai sighed deeply, adjusting the captured Metro Cop vest he wore. Sticks of ammunition were stuck haphazardly in various places, along with a knife and a few basic supplies. The single block of homemade explosives in a pouch in the small of his back was extremely uncomfortable.

'Remember… if you make it to the top, plant your bombs at the _base_ of the launchers. That's the only way they'll stay down, I guess.' Wilhelm shrugs. _None of us will make it…_

Barely a second later there is the tell tale blast of an IED, probably hidden in a car. The telltale screech of deforming metal and debris raining down. Wilhelm let out a cry in German, and raised his rifle. He charged down the narrow road, firing into a cloud of invisible enemies.

The rest of the rebels followed suite, running blindly into an expanding screen of smoke. They all screamed. Some in fear. Some for vengeance. And some for bloodlust. Nikolai didn't know what he was screaming for, but that didn't deter him in the slightest.

Throwing himself against the wall violently, Nikolai took the moments safety to take a deep breath. His lungs released their stale load. He hadn't let out the pent up breath in his chest since he had began to charge the building.

Making sure his gun was loaded, Nikolai took a few more breaths and repeated his mantra. _Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death. I will face my fear, and let it wash over me._ He hugged his Smeg close, and turned into the doorway that led into the building.

The Metro Cop in the foyer turned to face this new threat, a gun hanging limply in gloved hands. His laziness would be his downfall. Nikolai took a low position, a half crouch half stand and fired a burst. The Metro Cop jerked back as the slugs tore through flesh. It slumped back against the wall, blood leaking from several wounds in it's chest. There was a flat tone, like a heart rate meter flat lining.

Nikolai kept his aim on it long enough to make sure it was dead, and than moved on. He wasn't afraid anymore. Well, he _was_ afraid, but that fear was overridden by something else. By a desire to take a bloody toll on these traitors to humanity, to make them pay for their crimes and oppression. Nikolai had a purpose.

To kill these men in blue suits, until such time as he was unable to.

One of the Overwatch troopers came barrelling down the stair case, right as Nikolai began to move deeper into the building. He almost casually unloaded a dozen rounds into the blue suit's legs, causing it to fall flat on it's helmeted face and slide down the stair case, leaving a bloody trail.

Kara, a tired looking woman sent from the distant rebel outpost of New Little Odessa, put a round through the thrashing blue suit's skull as she dashed by. Her weapon spat death down a hallway, before she disappeared from view. Nikolai followed her through a broken set of emergency doors, and began to rush up a dimly lit stair case.

'Shit! White suits, two floors above us!' Kara shouted, aiming her Chinese AK-47 clone upwards and spraying wildly. Nikolai followed suit, blasting at the white armoured elite Combine soldiers. What began was an odd, vertical fire fight. Plasma shot and solid slugs tore through the stairs, rebounding off the walls and bouncing continuously in the confined spaces. One of the white suits tried to fire a plasma grenade, but the narrow stair well bounced the ball of energy down a hallway a floor above Nikolai's head.

He ducked behind a railing, leaning out to fire at one of the exposed Overwatch Soldiers. A tongue of flame leapt from his gun, lighting up the dingy stair case. Kara pushed him out of the way, firing on full automatic fire. She was rewarded with a sharp cry, and a white suited body falling past them.

'Nik, start moving up. I'll cover you!' Kara screamed, her eyes wide. Nikolai nodded, crawling past her. There were only a few stairs between him and a landing. There was a door there, marked "5". From their limited briefing, Nikolai knew this building has nineteen stories.

He cursed, carefully making his way up the stairs. The constant gun battle had weakened the steps, and Nikolai had no wish to die falling down a flight of stairs in a dark building and breaking his neck. Up ahead, a noise sounded that Nikolai had no desire to hear.

The ominous drone of a manhack. More accurately, a swarm of manhacks.

'Fuck me…' he muttered, firing off a last, defiant burst. The hail of slugs smacked into the nearest manhack, ripping through the internal bits that made it function. It was knocked back, into the second one. The second manhack's light turned a shade of yellow, and it reversed direction, bumping into several others.

What happened next was some sort of sick domino effect. The swarm of manhacks conversed upon the white suit's position. In the precious seconds it took for them to destroy the tiny machines, Nikolai and Kara killed them both in a hail of gun fire.

'Kara?'

'Yeah, Nik?'

'You hit?'

'Nope,' Kara replied, gleefully running up after him. She embraced him, smiling. 'We did it! We got the bastards! We killed white suits!' Nikolai returned the smile. Kara pushed herself away, embarrassed. Nikolai just shrugged and retrieved his Smeg, making sure it was loaded.

They stood looking up at the rows of spiralling stairs. Nikolai turned to Kara grimly.

'You ready?' he asked, already knowing the answer. She nodded, slapping a fresh clip into her AK. Nikolai gingerly stepped over the mangled corpse of the white suit, careful to not cut open his foot on any of the pieces of destroyed manhack.

Kara followed behind him, her weapon covering each step. They could hear sounds of battle, from the other side of the building. Gunshots and explosions, and every now and than the building would shake, as if hit by some great object. They both knew what is was, however. The headcrab shell launched, bane of the resistance.

The two met no resistance on their way to the top, only passing a dead resistance soldier who's face had been shot away. Kara grabbed the sling of grenades the man had been carrying, while Nikolai picked up a few spare magazines for his Smeg. _This is it. We're gunna do it. _He took a series of deep breaths, making sure his weapon was loaded and the safety was disengaged. Kara had set down the AK on the top step and was busy threading a piece of string through the pins of about a half dozen grenades.

'Nik, I want you to grab my gun and start spraying. I'll throw these babies in, wait for 'em to blow, than we mop up any survivors. Got it?' Kara asked. Nikolai nodded, picking up her weapon and securing it in his right hand. The Smeg was small enough to fire in the off hand.

They crept up the last few steps, alert for any surprises. Still, nothing but the distant gunshots kept the company. At the top of the stair well was a dented iron door. There was a Combine symbol painted messily on it. Kara made sure her grenades were ready, and turned to Nikolai. He nodded, preparing the weapons.

'One,' Kara muttered, beginning to pull the string. 'Two,' she said, wrenching the pins free. 'THREE!' she screamed, kicking open the door and throwing the sling of grenades in one motion. Nikolai pushed past her, pressing both trigger simultaneously. The heavy kick of the AK smashed into his shoulder, but he wrestled the gun to keep it aimed down.

The rooftop disappeared in a blinding flash, as six grenades went off near the middle. Screams echoed as Nikolai continued to hose the area with bullets. He felt a tug on his arm, and turned to see Kara grabbing the Smeg. She rammed a full magazine in, offering one for the AK to Nikolai. He grabbed it, popped out the now empty one, and rammed the full one home.

Together they laid down a withering barrage of bullets, clearing the smoking ruins of the building. Nikolai caught sight of a staggering figure in bulky armour, and turned towards it. He hammered down the trigger, watching the shadowy foe fall. Screams and flat-line tones echoed across the top of the building.

Nikolai charged forward, firing from the hip. Kara kept to his left, putting a round or two into the body of anything that still moved. The two resistance fighters circled around the cluster of machines, surrounding the central headcrab shell launcher. They fired round after round into the milling smoke, expending two hundred rounds together. When the AK clicked empty and there were no more magazines, Nikolai tossed it into the smoke at a twitching shape. He picked up a sparking Stunstick and used it to pulp a wounded Metro Cop's helmeted head in.

When Nikolai looked up from the dead trooper, the smoke had cleared. He snagged the Metro Cop's pistol. Looking down, he saw it wasn't a regular USP type gun. _The combine seem to have a frigging fetish with German guns. Nikolai recognized it as a FN Five-SeveN, a popular weapon from an online video game in his youth. He picked it up, checking to see if it was loaded. When it was, he snapped off the safety and began to make his way towards the centre._

_A moan caught his attention. Nikolai snapped around, aiming his captured pistol at a slowly moving shape. He grinned wolfishly, and kicked the wounded Combine in the back. It coughed hoarsely, and Nikolai saw blood leaking from a ruptured armoured suit._

'_I… surrender…' it rasped, before launching into another coughing fit. Nikolai laughed, putting the barrel of his pistol to it's head._

'_Too bad, blue suit. We're not taking prisoners.'_

_A few seconds later, the team of six rebels fighting their way up the western stairwell heard a single, final gunshot from the rooftop. And than silence._


End file.
